At least 300 people were killed in a northeastern Nigerian town on the Cameroon border in the latest attack by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, AFP reports, citing a local senator and witnesses.

The attack on Gamboru Ngala took place Monday night, but the
official death toll was first reported Wednesday in the national
newspaper The Daily Trust, which put it at 200 people and
counting.

Area senator Ahmed Zanna now tells AFP that "the death toll
from the attack is around 300" and "property has been
razed." Residents say over one hundred bodies have been
collected so far and that this not the final toll yet.

"Since morning, our people have been conducting funerals for
the dead and up to 8pm (last night) they are not done yet.
There’s no family that is not affected in Gamboru," federal
lawmaker from the area, Abdulrahman Terab, told The Daily Trust.

The militants had entered the village of Gamboru in armored
vehicles, on motorcycles, and with pick-up trucks.

“The attackers stormed the communities in the night when
residents were still sleeping, setting ablaze houses and shooting
residents who tried to escape from the fire,’” Senator Ahmed
Zannah said in a BBC Hausa report Tuesday.

Among the dead were some 16 policemen.

Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” and the group,
which wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, frequently
stages attacks.

The sect has been growing bolder in recent months. More than 200
schoolgirls were kidnapped by the group three weeks ago, with the
leader threatening to sell them into slavery. A $300,000 cash
reward has since been offered by the police for their recovery.

The kidnapping occurred the same day as an explosion which killed
75 people on the outskirts of the capital Abuja – the first on
the city in some two years. So far this year, the group has been
responsible for some 1,500 deaths.

The US and UK have both stated their intent to help find the
kidnapped girls. The US his sending experts to Abuja while
Britian has stated that it is ready to go further and dispatch
military troops in the form of special forces and intelligence
gathering aircraft.